pkondz
Brace yourself for immediate disintegration
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2007
Funny/Not Funny - real life update
So I was back-to-school shopping the other day with Kay when I came across something at the register.
I picked it up. Laughed.
Put it in the basket.
Put it back on the shelf.
Shrugged, said, "Oh, what the heck."
Put it back in the basket.
Bought it.
I mean, it's just meant to be right?
A couple of days later, I'm coming back from... I don't remember.
Doesn't matter.
I was on a section of road where the speed limit is 80kph/50mph. But frequently, during the day, depending on traffic, you can expect to be at a dead standstill at least a couple of times before you get through the next set of traffic lights.
Traffic's moving okay... probably around 60kph/35mph or so.
And of course, we come to a standstill.
I'm sitting there.
Just behind a car who's sitting behind another car and so on for about 50 cars.
I glance in my rearview mirror and there's a truck behind me.
He's about one car-length back.
It's one of those big flatbed trucks that you see for hauling around lumber, or as was the case here, stacks of drywall.
Do you guys south of the border call it drywall? Or is it sheetrock?
Whatever.
That's not really the issue.
What was the issue was that this big truck...
That was a car-length behind me...
With me and everyone in front of me stopped, waiting for the lights to change...
Was still going about 80kph/50mph.
I think my eyes might have gotten really, really big. And I know... I mean I know my adrenaline kicked into overdrive.
I had no where to go.
I did the only thing I had even a chance to do, which was crank the steering wheel as hard as I could so that when I got creamed from behind, I might not (that's might not) die by being turned into a pancake, but would instead get catapulted into the cars beside me. An angled crash might just save my life... but it's still going to be bad.
I didn't think all this at the time. All I know is I reacted on instinct, to GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!
So I didn't die, obviously.
At the last second, the truck driver woke up.
He jinked to the left for a nano-second, then swerved to the right. He bounced up over the curb and onto the gravel shoulder and roared past me in a cloud of diesel fumes and road dust.
I sat there for a second, watching my life flash before my eyes and pondering what to do now.
Should I pull over and follow him?
What for. Why would I?
I figured he was probably just as shaken up as I was.
Maybe more. "Holy *expletive* I almost killed that guy!"
So I just drove home.
So I was back-to-school shopping the other day with Kay when I came across something at the register.
I picked it up. Laughed.
Put it in the basket.
Put it back on the shelf.
Shrugged, said, "Oh, what the heck."
Put it back in the basket.
Bought it.
I mean, it's just meant to be right?
A couple of days later, I'm coming back from... I don't remember.
Doesn't matter.
I was on a section of road where the speed limit is 80kph/50mph. But frequently, during the day, depending on traffic, you can expect to be at a dead standstill at least a couple of times before you get through the next set of traffic lights.
Traffic's moving okay... probably around 60kph/35mph or so.
And of course, we come to a standstill.
I'm sitting there.
Just behind a car who's sitting behind another car and so on for about 50 cars.
I glance in my rearview mirror and there's a truck behind me.
He's about one car-length back.
It's one of those big flatbed trucks that you see for hauling around lumber, or as was the case here, stacks of drywall.
Do you guys south of the border call it drywall? Or is it sheetrock?
Whatever.
That's not really the issue.
What was the issue was that this big truck...
That was a car-length behind me...
With me and everyone in front of me stopped, waiting for the lights to change...
Was still going about 80kph/50mph.
I think my eyes might have gotten really, really big. And I know... I mean I know my adrenaline kicked into overdrive.
I had no where to go.
I did the only thing I had even a chance to do, which was crank the steering wheel as hard as I could so that when I got creamed from behind, I might not (that's might not) die by being turned into a pancake, but would instead get catapulted into the cars beside me. An angled crash might just save my life... but it's still going to be bad.
I didn't think all this at the time. All I know is I reacted on instinct, to GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!
So I didn't die, obviously.
At the last second, the truck driver woke up.
He jinked to the left for a nano-second, then swerved to the right. He bounced up over the curb and onto the gravel shoulder and roared past me in a cloud of diesel fumes and road dust.
I sat there for a second, watching my life flash before my eyes and pondering what to do now.
Should I pull over and follow him?
What for. Why would I?
I figured he was probably just as shaken up as I was.
Maybe more. "Holy *expletive* I almost killed that guy!"
So I just drove home.